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Containers part of $1.3M local defense funding
By Shelia Watson
Contributing Writer
Of the $131 million in South Carolina-related defense projects recently approved by the U.S. Senate, nearly half will go to companies in the Lowcountry.
The funding was included in the Fiscal Year 2006 Defense Appropriations Bill and must still be approved by a joint House/Senate conference committee. Final approval is expected by the end of the year.
One local company included in the funding is Charleston Marine Containers Inc., which produces specialty containers for commercial and military logistical needs. CMCI will receive $6 million to produce specialty containers for the Department of Defense, marking the third year the company was awarded such a contract.
“We’ve more than doubled our workforce over the last three years,” President Herb Ellis said.
Last year the U.S. Army awarded CMCI a half-billion dollar contract, which covers production and delivery of specialty containers during a five-year period. That contract was the largest ever awarded for containers.
The specialty containers are a fraction of the size of a regular 20-foot container. Three Tricon containers and four Quadcon containers may connect to equal the 20-foot ISO container footprint, which allows for standard intermodal shipping. The small size has helped transportation logistics in the military, particularly in war zones. The current project provides funding for the Quadcons, which will likely be used in Iraq.
The company recently introduced refrigerated versions of the Tricon and Quadcon to help U.S. military forces in Iraq meet the need for modular reefer units for food and medical transportation and storage.
CMCI also is supplying American Science and Engineering Inc. a set of three modified Tricons for shipment and operations of its backscatter X-ray systems. The AS&E system has been successful in imaging explosive materials and weapons hidden in trucks, in containers and on people. Both the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense are interested in the system.
Truck-mounted versions of the system have been tested in Iraq and have proven so successful that the insurgents have placed a bounty on them, Ellis said.
CMCI, located on the former Charleston Naval Shipyard since the base realignment in 1996, has a 25-year lease on its facility, which includes more than 250,000 square feet of manufacturing space.
“Since we’ve been here, we’ve made more than 30,000 containers used by the military,” Ellis said.
Projects in the Lowcountry total $55 million. The remaining funding is earmarked as $11 million for the Upstate, $11.5 million for the Midlands, $4.5 million for the Piedmont and $49 million for statewide projects.
Other Lowcountry projects funded in the Fiscal Year 2006 Defense Appropriations Bill include:
• $28 million for the purchase of two C-17 Maintenance Training Systems produced in Summerville.
• $6 million for the development of the Joint Threat Warning System, an air communication surveillance system.
• $4.5 million for the South Carolina Research Authority to support the Lean Munitions program in Charleston.
• $4 million for the development of an automated container and cargo handling system.
• $3.5 million for the Critical Infrastructure Protection Center in Charleston.
• $3 million for the development of vaccines for multivalent dengue viruses in Charleston.
• $6 million for the production of specialty containers for the Department of Defense by Charleston Marine Containers Inc.
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